Metrication advocates are at it again

Ahem. Surely, you mean .00097656 incremental reamers? ;-)

-tih

And oddly enough, most of that stuff goes on in metric. There are no laws are requirements that prohibit the use of metric standards in the US.

I worked three years for a firm where all the prints, dimensions, tolerances, and manufacturing went on under the metric system. We sold overseas and also in the US.

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

Exactly, it's none of the government's business whether we do design in hard metric or inch units. In electronics (PCB design, for example) it's usually mixed since newer surface-mount packages are hard metric (0.8mm or 0.5mm lead pitch). Want to use a M3 instead of a 4-40 screw because the parts are $0.003 instead of $0.0045? Up to you.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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My fear is that the metrication gang will sing a silver song to people who have no clue and will force us into giving up all our manuals, catalogs, supplies, standards, in order to satisfy some fictional benefit which does not exist. At the turn of the century Pratt & Whittney fought a brave battle against standard metrication in the US and it looks like we may have to do it again. I want both systems --- plus the sixty second minute, plus the hex dex and binary system, and 16 bits and 32 bits and my cup of coffee and 12 ounce beer. Why should we give any of this up for the sake of some socialistic elitist's lunacy?

Wayne

Sorry to break the news to you, but the US has been using decimal units for a very long time already - decimal inches. If you think decimal units are a quagmire, you're already trapped and fossilized.

Dave

Wayne: Do they use metric paper sizes in Mexico or US/Canadian sizes?

Maybe it could be used as an excuse to provide massive gov't subsidies to American manufacturing for the "changeover". Add some lax enforcement and clever statistics-gathering to the brew..

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

Umm, nobody really cares about this any more, because all the manufacturing has gone overseas. I think it basically amounts to re-shuffling the deck chairs as the liner goes down.

Jim

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No benefits? Are you (##^#@)(! kidding?? New students to any scientific or technical discipline have an *extremely* hard time learning the bizarreness of the English system. I remember when I was learning physics--the whole book was in metric and I had negligible problems with that. But a couple problems were in English and they hosed me completely. There was one problem in particular that involved finding a PSI in the faucets on the second floor of a house. I spent literally an entire evening obtaining negative pressures, infinite pressures and other nonsensical values. Finally I just converted the givens to metric, did the problem and converted the answer back to English. Got the right answer the first time.

Furthermore, all physical science, including in the US, is done in metric. Therefore the people that make their equipment should use it too. The lost Mars craft is an example of why everyone should be on the same system.

Well, the physics is. But the engineering behind the physics is pretty much ambidexterous. Ac - dc if you will.

Jim

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I agree, metric is logically the way to go. But getting everyone to agree, and then do it is an uphill battle. Gradually it will eventually happen, in fact is already happening. Look at US made (read: US assembled) vehicles, they are a combination of metric and English and getting more metric all the time. We live in a global economy and should fit in the best we can. I consider us lucky enough in that the English language is so universal, just like the metric system should be.

Lane

57 3/4 cubic inches

A useless number.

231 cubic inches

Greg H.

63360. Not even this is a useleess number as this is the scale on a 1 inch to a mile map.

Since any busy shop goes through that stuff pretty fast, I doubt it would have a lot of impact. On the other hand, I've seen plenty of blunders in my work (failure analysis of missile system electroncs) that arose from errors of arithmetic on the part of designers. Anything that simplifies their job is probably to the good. You may be amused to note that my employer, Lockheed-Martin, while officially an advocate of metric conversion, hasn't bothered with it internally, which defalction is credited with the loss of a Mars lander not so very long ago.

Al Moore

In fact, the US is an original signer of the Metric convention, and has been officially "metric" since about 1790. All of our conventional units are definied in terms of the metric system.

Yep. There's never been a US automobile without at least one metric thread, but now they're pretty much entirely metric.

Al Moore

The metric rzoles started the chant in Australia in the 60's and got lucky. We went metric in 1966.

You have an old house and now want a new door (2'8"x6'8" standard pre '66) can't buy them any more. a piece of 4x2, think you guys put it

2x4 is still 4x2 cept they call it 50x100. If you buy timber now from 2 different yards, you'll get 2 different sizes.

The price of everything went up. and yet 35 years later you still can't buy an Aussi made metric bolt they call them 10mm but they are the old 3/8" whitworth thread. Metric threaded stuff is imported and twice (at least) the price.

And the jobs went overseas too. Hear you guys moaning about jobs going overseas. If you go metric more jobs will go overseas. If Ford and Chrysler have to retool to metric Toyota and Honda and the Korean guys cars will be a lot cheaper.

Petrol ah yes was cents per gallon now costs us to-day 89.9c / litre (1/5th gallon roughly).

Farmers here still talk feet inches and acres. They buy US machinery

- all Imperial - not interested in change.

Mothers still refer to baby's birth weight in lbs and ozs no-one understands babies weighing x Kilos.

Resist guys and make a noise we are sorry we didn't.

Glenn

================================= Huh? I suspect you're referring to the spark plugs when you say "at least one metric thread", but most early cars had inch thread plugs.

If not the spark plugs, then what metric thread do you mean?

Joe

I don't see how this is even possible. Australia has heard of capitalism, right? If there is a demand, there will be a supply. I would imagine that the number of doorways made pre-1966 must be pretty high--but here's you saying you "can't buy them".